


to die for

by kuttsukiboshi



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dark Magic, DayFive, Demon Hunters, Demons, Kinda, M/M, Necromancy, Some blood and gore, Zombie Apocalypse, byeol the funky lil zombie cat, homoerotic necromancy rituals, i swear this isn't as dark as the tags make it seem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27273652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuttsukiboshi/pseuds/kuttsukiboshi
Summary: If Wooyoung were ever to write a self help book, it would be titled: ‘So you’ve just caused the zombie apocalypse. Now what?’ in which he would detail all the things you should not do, like, ever, as a rule. Including, but not limited to: a) getting a crush on a demon, b) discovering through this that you might actually be into evil beings that could definitely kill you (and it’s not just a joke that your friends throw around anymore), c) resurrect said demon crush’s dead cat, thereby inadvertently causing the zombie apocalypse.On second thought, maybe he should title it ‘How to get disowned by your respectable demon slaying family in two days’.In his defense, Choi San was really hot
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung
Comments: 6
Kudos: 70
Collections: freak week 2020





	to die for

**Author's Note:**

> cw for animal death (she gets better) violence blood and gore 
> 
> happy spooky time!!

It wasn't like Wooyoung went about his life trying to break as many rules as possible. 

He'd probably be quite well behaved, the perfect son, a model demon slayer, if he didn't think that the rules were just, well, kinda dumb. And it wasn't like he was the only person who fraternised with demons, it was only his parents' generation that was still stuck in the dark ages and thought all demons were the embodiment of evil (which, fair enough, that was kind of their thing) when most demons were just like them, really, and his friends hung out with them just as much.

"Yeah, okay, but," Yeosang said, when he tried this defence out on him. "I don't do dark magic."

"It's not  _ dark magic. _ " Wooyoung protested, flicking through the book on the table in between them. Yeosang eyed it suspiciously. "It's like, grey." He paused on a page. "Okay, maybe that's kinda dark."

Yeosang raised his eyebrows at the detailed illustration of what looked like some kind of malevolent spirit. "What do you even need that for?"

Wooyoung shrugged. "It's cool."

So maybe he thought dark magic was cool (maybe he even did it a couple times), maybe like all of his non-slayer friends had been demons, maybe he lived life skating on the edge of what was not allowed. But it was never really that serious.

Demons and demon slayers, as one would think, were traditionally enemies. But nowadays, most of them just coexisted alongside humans, it had been years since the last time they actually came to blows. Even so, they mostly kept out of each other's way. Wooyoung's friends didn't have any issues with them, but they still mostly steered clear of them. Maybe that was more because they didn't want to get in trouble than any deeper reason, but Wooyoung had always had more of an affinity for these things that went beyond any societal taboos.

As much as all of this was true, he still didn't mean for any of this to happen.

Here's the thing: being friends with a demon? Not great, but probably not gonna get him disowned. Sleeping with a demon? Probably gonna get him disowned, yeah, and maybe kicked out of the community. Performing extremely forbidden dark magic in order to get that dick? Yeah, he might as well just leave the country.

Accidentally maybe bringing about the apocalypse?

In his defence, Choi San was really hot.

They met by chance, the way most people meet at the first year of college, at a party. Wooyoung had grown up in a fairly sheltered community, where the closest thing to rebellion he got was from stealing alcohol (and forbidden magic books, but that wasn't really the same thing) with Yeosang and Jongho. So naturally, during their first few college parties, they got absolutely smashed. Wooyoung threw himself enthusiastically into a drinking game, took five shots, and might have got part way through a strip tease at one point (he couldn't really remember, but his shirt was now inside out). He'd lost Yeosang for about half an hour now, and his head was spinning in a way that no longer felt that fun.

"You okay?" Someone yelled over the music, and he jerked his head up so quickly it nearly connected with the other guy's.

"I'm good," He yelled back, making an attempt at a thumbs up, trying to focus on the guy in front of him. "Have you seen my friend?"

"Who's your friend?" The guy replied, moving closer to him so he could hear him better. Wooyoung blinked up into his face, finally seeing him properly.

"Hey," He said, even though he was pretty sure they'd skipped greetings already. The guy just started to laugh as if he'd said something funny.

"Hey." He echoed. "Do you want me to help find your friend?"

Wooyoung just blinked at him again, struggling to process this. "I don't know where he is," He said, empathetically.

"That's okay, we can find him." Before Wooyoung had a chance to even attempt to respond to this, the guy was grabbing his wrist, then his whole arm to keep him steady, and directing him through the crowd towards the doorway.

In retrospect, maybe this could've been seen as kind of suspicious, but honestly, Wooyoung was quite drunk, and he couldn't really think of anything beyond ' _ pretty boy holding my arm' _ . (He probably would've gone sober as well, if he was being completely honest.)

The cold air that hit them as soon as they stepped outside helped to sober him up a little, enough to glance at the guy who was helping him and say, "I'm Wooyoung."

"I'm San." The guy let go of his arm as they stopped. Wooyoung swayed on the spot slightly.

"You're cute." He said, because he literally could not think of anything else to say. That just made San break down laughing again, clutching Wooyoung's arm to steady himself this time.

Then, several things happened at once.

First, San looked up at him, face lit up with a dimpled smile, and Wooyoung thought that they might be about to kiss, he was ready to make out with this guy he'd met five minutes ago. Then he realised that they were both actually pretty drunk, not just him, and San didn't have a very firm grip on his arm. In the split second it took him to process all of this, he was falling, suddenly, as if the ground had gone out beneath him. He barely had time to process this development either, because someone-  _ something _ , seized both of his arms, stopping him abruptly in midair.

Wooyoung exhaled shakily, starting to panic when he realised he couldn't move any of his limbs, and that he was suspended just above a flight of stairs. Looking down, he realised that falling down there could've done him some serious damage, the thought sending a sobering coldness through his body.

"What-" He struggled against his invisible bonds, except, they weren't invisible, he just couldn't seem to focus on them properly, his vision going hazy every time he tried, the weird chill continuing to spread through him. " _ Hey _ ," He pushed away the mental fog that was trying to block him and focused straight ahead.

Looking straight into San's eyes.

Except, they didn't look like his eyes anymore. They were darker, yet had a strange sort of gleam to them, like a predator watching its prey. It was strangely difficult to tear his eyes away, but when he did, he finally saw what was holding him in place.

They looked a little bit like ropes, but smoother, more like ribbons, so black it was as if they were made of pure darkness. Upon closer inspection it seemed like they were…  _ pulsing _ , almost as if they were alive. They were coming from him. San. Somehow. Like the darkness was wrapping around him, spilling forwards.

"Holy shit..." Wooyoung muttered, unable to muster anything more forceful with the energy draining out of him so fast. These words seemed to trigger some kind of reaction in San. He blinked, as if he was waking up from some kind of trance, and next thing Wooyoung knew, he was on the ground again.

"Shit!" San dropped to the ground next to him, looking completely normal again. "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

Wooyoung looked up at him, warmth slowly seeping back into his limbs. "Holy shit." He repeated, with a little more feeling. "You're a demon!"

"Um," San started, looking around as if he were embarrassed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to- I was trying to-" He gestured vaguely, "Stop you from falling."

"You-" Wooyoung pointed at him, making him flinch back slightly, for some reason (like Wooyoung was in any state to do anything to him right now). "Grabbed me, with fuckin'" He threw his other hand up in the air, " _ tentacles _ -"

"They're not  _ tentacles,"  _ San interrupted, definitely sounding embarrassed this time.

"Dude." Wooyoung dropped his raised hand onto San's shoulder. "That's so cool."

San just stared at him, looking so utterly confused it was almost funny. "What?"

"I think I'm gonna throw up now." Wooyoung announced. 

  
  


That was all he remembered from that night.

As it turned out, they lived in the same building, Wooyoung found out when he walked into the lobby the following evening, still feeling hungover as hell, and almost bumped into him. 

“Oh- uh, hey.” 

San tugged one of his earphones out, looking briefly lost before recognition dawned across his face. “Hi.” 

“Sorry about last night, by the way,” Wooyoung said quickly, before the awkward silence could stretch any longer. “I, um, was pretty drunk, and-”

“Do you remember anything?”

“Uh, yeah?” Wooyoung said, a little taken aback by the urgency in his tone. “I mean, everything until I passed out…”

“Oh,” San seemed to deflate slightly at this. “I’m really sorry.”

Wooyoung stared at him in confusion. “...Why?” 

“I don’t usually do, y’know, that stuff, in front of people. Or, like, at all.” 

_ Oh _ , Wooyoung realised abruptly what he meant. The demon stuff. Of course. Sure, most people would probably be freaked out about that, come to think of it, but Wooyoung had barely even thought about anything beyond how he’d embarrassed  _ himself _ . 

“It’s cool!” He said, maybe a little too enthusiastically. “I would’ve broken something if you hadn’t done that,” He paused, “Or maybe died,”

San, for some reason, seemed to flinch slightly at these words. “Do you… know what those things are for?” He said, hesitantly. Again, it took Wooyoung a moment to figure out what he was talking about, but it dawned on him again. The not-tentacles.

“What? Oh, yeah, of course. Draining life force or something, isn’t it? Like, I forgot the word,” He waved a hand illustratively. “Psychic vampirism.” 

San blinked at him. “Um,” 

“I knew you weren’t gonna kill me,” Wooyoung said confidently, but then saw San’s expression, and faltered slightly. “I mean- were you?”

“No!” San cut in quickly, “ _ No _ , I didn’t know how else to catch you!”

“Okay, okay, sorry!” He knew some demons really hated the implication that they were untrustworthy,  the stereotype that everything they did had some kind of ulterior motive. San was still looking at him like he couldn't quite believe this reaction.

"How'd you even know- how do you know about, like... demon stuff." He lowered his voice slightly on the last words, as if afraid someone would overhear.

Wooyoung opened his mouth then closed it again. He was on the brink of telling him, it wasn't like he kept it a secret, really, no one did, when it suddenly occurred to him that the fact that he was a slayer and San was a demon might drive a rift into their potential friendship. 

"Uh, I just like that stuff," He shrugged, hoping he sounded convincing. It wasn’t exactly a lie.

"You like it," San echoed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah!" Wooyoung said, feeling slightly defensive the way he always did when people questioned his... interests. "It's cool."

San just looked at him disbelievingly for a moment, then, seemingly lost for words, just started to laugh helplessly.

"What? I'm being serious!" Wooyoung protested. San looked back at him, face lit up with another dimpled smile.

"I've never heard anyone talk about it like that before," He said, shaking his head. "People usually... freak out, so I don't do that stuff."

Wooyoung paused, seeing his smile fade slightly. "Like, at all?" He said, a little hesitantly. San shook his head.

"No one here even knows, I didn't want to tell anyone," His eyes widened slightly as something seemed to occur to him, "Can you not tell anyone, please?"

"Sure," Wooyoung said, still a little taken aback. He'd never met a demon who tried to hide their identity. Although, he supposed, he wouldn't have realised even if he had. "You can do that stuff in front of me, though." He added, after they spent a moment in slightly awkward silence.

San just started laughing again. "Yah, you just want me to show you, right?" 

They ended up behind the library, in the blind spot of the security cameras, where Wooyoung successfully persuaded San into showing him exactly what he could do with fire. Even though fire was basically a demon's best friend, what they used in combat 90% of the time, Wooyoung had never seen it in action before. Probably because it was so dangerous, it could be manipulated so that a tiny flame could burn up a whole building in seconds.

In retrospect, maybe they shouldn't have done it next to the library.

"Did you burn yourself?" Yeosang asked him, when Wooyoung came to his room that evening to 'study' (read: watch videos).

"What? Oh," Wooyoung turned his hand over to look at the scorch mark on the back that Yeosang was looking at suspiciously, then covered his eyes with the same hand. "I think I'm in love."

This was how it started. This was not, however, the last bad decision in the series of major bad decisions that resulted in Wooyoung's ultimate fuck up.

They became friends easily, him and San. It was the kind of friendship that took barely any time to transition from the slightly awkward phase into talking like they’d known each other for years. Their friend groups mixed, too, and it quickly became clear that literally no one was aware San was a demon. Wooyoung had never cared about that to begin with, but he knew it was possible that the others might. Even though it seemed unlikely.

Because he wasn’t the stereotype that everyone had of a demon, he may be kind of unpredictable and even intimidating at times, but he was also kind and loyal and way too humble about everything. He went to the dance club Wooyoung signed up to just because he didn’t want to go despite saying before that he wasn’t a good dancer (this turned out to be a total lie) he went to karaoke with him and didn’t complain when Wooyoung played eleven BTS songs in a row. He was obsessed with his cat and constantly showed everyone pictures of it, eyes lighting up every time he did.

(Wooyoung maybe kinda liked him. Whatever.)

He had a lingering anxiety that Yeosang or Jongho would let slip what they were to him, since none of them were really bothering to keep their identity secret, but that hadn’t happened yet. 

So, he managed to convince himself that it would be fine. 

“He’s a demon, isn’t he,” 

Wooyoung fumbled and dropped his pen on the table, the sound seeming to echo around the quiet library. “What?” His voice came out far too loud, several people glancing over to their table. 

Jongho looked unperturbed by this, just regarding him serenely. “San.” 

“He- why do you-” Wooyoung gave up trying to find an excuse and sighed. “How’d you know?”

“It’s kinda obvious,” Jongho said, sounding almost apologetic. 

“It is?” He was realising as he said it that yeah, it probably was to a slayer, after spending some time with a demon. “He hasn’t told anyone, he doesn’t want anyone to know, so don’t-”

“Does he know about you?”

Wooyoung paused, caught off guard by the interjection. “Um.” 

Jongho sighed. “You should probably tell him.” He turned the page of his textbook. 

“I can’t!” Wooyoung protested, in a whisper-shout. “He’d hate me,” Jongho was probably right, damn it, but there was no way he was going to admit to that. He put his hand over the page Jongho was now reading, trying to draw his attention back. “Wait, does Yeosang know too?” 

Jongho just shrugged. 

As it turned out, Yeosang did know. Of course he did.

“I would say I can’t believe you’re trying to seduce a demon, but then I remembered who you are, and I can definitely believe it.” Yeosang informed him, watching judgmentally as Wooyoung tried on his third jeans and jacket combo. 

“I thought he was hot before I knew he was a demon.” He called over his shoulder, shrugging the jacket off and picking up a discarded one again. 

“Stop pretending you’re not into demons.” Yeosang deadpanned. “We all know.”

“I’m not into demons! Sometimes I just like people who happen to be…” Wooyoung gestured vaguely, trying to find the right word.

“Evil.” Yeosang supplied helpfully.

“ _ No _ ,” 

Wooyoung is definitely into demons.

Not that that was any of Yeosang’s concern. And even so, he was sure he would’ve liked San even if he wasn’t a demon. Honestly, his being a demon had barely any impact on their relationship at all. (It did kind of make him hotter, though.)

San was supposed to be at this party, but it had been almost an hour and no one had seen any sign of him. Wooyoung had called and texted a few times, to no avail. 

“He’s probably around here somewhere,” Yunho, one of San’s friends, yelled over the music to him. “What, aren’t we enough for you?” 

“He’s only interested in San,” Hongjoong (another friend of San’s, one of the token second years in what was becoming his friend group) interjected, slinging an arm around Yunho’s waist, regarding Wooyoung with amusement. Usually he’d try and come up with some kind of retort, but at that exact moment his phone started ringing.

“Just a minute!” He called to the others, heading for the door before any of them could reply. “What’s up? Where are you?”

“Wooyoung.” San said. Something in his voice made Wooyoung pause. 

“What’s wrong?” He said, uncertainly. “San?” 

“Sorry,” San replied, after a too long pause. It was clear from his voice that there was definitely something wrong. “Can you meet me? Like, now.”

“Uh, sure.” Wooyoung glanced around at the drunk people milling around, glad he’d only agreed to one drink so far. “Where are you?” 

“My room.”

“Okay, I’m coming.” He hesitated. “Are you okay?” 

But he’d already ended the call.

Wooyoung stared at his phone for a moment, a mixture of worry and confusion coiling in his stomach.  _ Okay, what the hell.  _

It didn’t take him long to get to San’s dorm, fortunately, he didn’t have time to assume all of the worst case scenarios before he was knocking on the door, out of breath. “San?”

“It’s open.”

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting when he walked in. Maybe just San upset about something, wanting to talk. Not… this.

“Holy shit.” 

San looked up at him, from where he was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, looking up from the thing on his lap. His cat. Only-

“Shit,” Wooyoung’s breath caught in his throat, and he managed to unfreeze long enough to cross the room and fall to his knees in front of him, reaching his hand out tentatively to the motionless cat.  _ No way.  _ “Is she…”

“Some guy was speeding, hit her with his car.” San said. His voice sounded oddly calm, even though looking at his face, Wooyoung could tell he’d been crying. “I think he did it on purpose.”

Wooyoung didn’t know what to say. “Oh my god,”

San shrugged, even though his expression still looked utterly broken. “Just needed someone to, I don’t know,” He paused, running his hand over the bundle of fur. “Sorry.” 

“Don’t apologise,” Wooyoung shifted closer to him so he could put a hand on his shoulder. “San, I’m so sorry,” He hesitated, “Do you want to…”  _ bury her,  _ he was going to say, but couldn’t bring himself to say the words to San right now. San just shook his head, leaning his face into 

“Why’d he do it?” He said, voice slightly muffled. “That guy. I know he did it on purpose.”

“You should report him, or something, that’s gotta be illegal,” 

San straightened up again, staring into the mirror across from him. “I could destroy him.” 

The words should sound kind of ridiculous, and they would, coming from anyone else, but something about the way San said it sent a chill down his spine. He blinked at him. “Um-”

Without warning, the mirror shattered into thousands of tiny shards, raining down in front of them. Wooyoung instinctively threw up his arms to protect himself, yelling in surprise. 

“Are you okay?” San was next to him in seconds. “Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, I shouldn’t’ve  _ said  _ that, I didn’t mean it-” Wooyoung waved a hand to try and reassure him.

“I’m fine, it’s fine!” He had to move away from the sea of broken glass on the floor. “That asshole deserves it, anyway.” 

San shook his head slowly. “No, that would be,” He drew his knees up to his chest. “It wouldn’t bring Byeol back.” They both glanced at where the body lay, in the centre of the room. The shards of mirror had fallen around it in a perfect circle. “Nothing will bring her back.”

It was at that moment, processing those words in his head, that the idea came to him. If he’d been sensible, then maybe he would’ve rejected it on the spot. But he wasn’t feeling sensible.

“What if there is something?”

San looked over at him, eyes narrowing in confusion. “What?”

“Wait a second,” Before he could think any better of it, he was rushing towards the door.

“What-” San called after him for the second time, sounding even more confused.

“Just a minute!”

It was lucky that his room was so near to San’s. It was less lucky, perhaps, that there wasn’t enough time on the journey to think better of doing this, to think maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, before he seized the heavy, ancient book still lying on his desk.

“What’s that?” San said when he returned, panting. He was standing up now, looking like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. Wooyoung slammed the book onto the table.

“Okay, this is gonna sound crazy,” He started to flick through the pages, “But it might just-”

“What is this?” San leaned forward to look over his shoulder, “You-” He cut himself off when Wooyoung landed on the page he was looking for.

_ Raising beings from the dead _

“I know it sounds crazy, but-”

“Why do you have this?” San interrupted him for a second time. 

Wooyoung faltered. “I, um,” He hadn’t thought of this. Shit. San had turned back to the book, running his hands over the pages. 

“This is…” He muttered, seemingly to himself, then looked up again abruptly. “Are you a slayer?”

“Um,” Wooyoung repeated, unhelpfully. He definitely should’ve thought of this. Of course it was obvious that this was the kind of books slayers kept in their libraries.

“Answer the question.” His voice hardened slightly.

“I’m really sorry,” Wooyoung gave up pretending. “I was gonna tell you, I just…”

“You just what? Huh? What, were you just waiting for me to slip up so you could report me? Or were you gonna do it yourself?” 

Okay, he was really mad. If that wasn’t already obvious from his raised voice and the things he was saying, something else was happening too. San seemed to be  _ radiating  _ heat, not just normal body heat, the kind that you felt when standing too close to a fire. Never piss a demon off. Wooyoung was so screwed.

“No, it wasn’t like that!” He protested, backing up slightly, having to carefully dodge the broken glass. “I thought you’d freak out if you knew!”  _ Which you are,  _ he knew better not to add. 

San didn’t seem to even register this, just slowly advancing on him. He was starting to actually get worried. 

“Uh, San,” 

No response. 

“San!” 

Still nothing. Wooyoung stopped backing away, despite his instincts yelling at him, steeling himself before grabbing hold of San’s arm. “ _ San _ .”

He stopped walking, finally. Wooyoung loosened his grip. “I’m really sorry.”

San said nothing for a moment, just staring at him, and Wooyoung thought briefly that he might’ve screwed up all over again. But then-

“You’re not even scared of me, are you,” 

Wooyoung laughed a little nervously. “I am kinda scared of you,” San raised an eyebrow, expression still unreadable. “But I still like you.”

San turned his head to the side, cracking a smile seemingly despite himself. He backed up from Wooyoung, the restrictive heat fading as he did so, and turned back to the book, studying the page it was open on.

“Okay,” He said, finally. “Let’s do it.”

And this was how Wooyoung ended making what was possibly the biggest fuck up of his life.

Truthfully, he had absolutely no idea if this was going to work. It was not a very well documented ritual, mainly because it required a demon and a slayer to work, and any kind of relationship between those two was… rare. Googling it had only yielded results about demons corrupting and seducing innocent people to involve them in their dark rituals. However, in the few documented cases, it had shown to be far more effective on animals than humans.

So. They should be fine. 

Wooyoung wiped his hands on his jeans when he was finished setting up for the ritual, remembering belatedly that he was still wearing the brand new ones he’d specifically picked out for the party they were supposed to be at. The thought made him laugh slightly deliriously.

“How does this work?” San said, tentatively approaching the makeshift pentagram Wooyoung had drawn on the floor of his dorm. 

“Uh, well, we say some stuff,” Wooyoung flicked through the book, “Then we need to, like, charge it.”

“Charge it?”

“Yeah,” Wooyoung looked up. “That’s why we need both of us. You channel your energy-” He gestured towards San, “Through me.” He brought his hand back to his chest. San blinked at him through the candlelight.

“Isn’t that… dangerous?”

“A little,” Wooyoung shrugged. “All magic is dangerous.” 

San shifted closer to the circle. “Are you sure about this?”

“I- not really,” Wooyoung admitted. “But I think we should still try.” He turned the page back to the incantation. “Just repeat what I say.”

It took quite some time to say the whole incantation, it was Latin and they were both nervous, trying not to mess up any of the words. San maintained eye contact with him in a way that felt weirdly intimate, if he wasn’t so focused he’d probably get flustered.

“Okay,” Wooyoung set the book down. “Now you need to, y’know.”

“Yeah,” San said quietly, “Are you sure this won’t hurt you.”

“Nope,” Wooyoung laughed, hoping he sounded more chill than he felt. “Apparently it’s easier if you, like, break the skin.” He made a vague slashing gesture. 

San stared at him. “With a knife?” 

“Or, uh, with your teeth.” 

“With… my teeth?”

“...Yes?”

“You want me to bite you,” San deadpanned.

“It’ll work better like that, okay?” Wooyoung said, a little too defensively, his face heating up. 

“Okay,” 

San moved around the circle so they were closer to each other, then stopped, seeming slightly awkward. “Do you know how to do it?” Wooyoung asked him. “Like, the charging,” He nodded.

“I do, I think, just,” He looked embarrassed now. “Where do I bite you?” 

“Uh, anywhere.” 

They stared at each other for a split second of more awkward silence. 

“Arm should be good,” Wooyoung said quickly, before the tension could get any weirder. He shrugged off his jacket, and San took hold of his arm tentatively. 

“Are you su-”

“Just do it,” 

Wooyoung didn’t mean to interrupt him like that, but he was on edge now, body thrumming with nervous anticipation. There was a voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Yeosang saying:  _ not into demons, huh?  _ Yeah, whatever. 

Before he could dwell on that thought any longer, San was leaning down and a sharp pain shot through his arm, making him gasp involuntarily. Blood dripped down into the space between them, and San lifted his head slightly to look at him, eyes dark and mouth dyed red with it. As if silently asking him if this was okay, before resuming, hand coming to grip Wooyoung’s wrist. A burning feeling started to spread through his body starting from the wound, not exactly painful, but making his adrenaline spike so he started to breathe heavily.

It was probably weird how much he didn’t hate this.

“Shit,” Wooyoung muttered under his breath as San drew back, placing his hand over the wound instead in a way that should probably be painful, but just sent more of that dizzying heat through him. The heat was beginning to get unbearable. It was like being stuck inside a sauna with the heat slowly rising, and it was this that finally prompted him to remember what he was meant to be doing.

He slammed his hand down onto the charm in the centre of the pentagram, focusing all of his strength on pouring the energy into it. The feeling was like too hot-water pouring over him, through him, almost enough to scald him.

And then, it was just over.

The room felt deceptively silent the moment after it stopped, the only sound was both of them breathing hard. Wooyoung looked at San. Even that small movement was difficult, he felt like his limbs were made of lead. 

“Wooyoung,” San started, but before he could get any further, they were both flung across to other sides of the room, as if something in between them had just exploded. Before they even had a chance to get their bearings, a seemingly gale force wind swept through the room, making the door and windows bang open. 

“Wooyoung!”

He was slipping in and out of consciousness, only vaguely aware of someone calling his name. San was beside him now, when had that happened?

_ Did it work? _

“Wooyoung,” He was saying, again, “Your arm, I-”

He cut himself off abruptly at a faint sound in the background.

“...Byeol?”

An unmistakable meow.

“Holy shit,” Wooyoung heard himself say, and then he lost consciousness.

  
  
  


He woke up feeling hungover times a thousand. It took him a moment to even remember what had happened, where he was, why his arm was throbbing painfully. “Shit…” He clutched at it, finding, to his surprise, there were bandages there. 

“Hey,” San’s voice came from somewhere to his right, making him glance over and immediately get blinded by the sunlight streaming through the window behind him. “How are you?” The San shaped silhouette that was now burned behind his eyes said. 

“Good,” Wooyoung lied, pushing himself up with his uninjured arm. “Did it work?” He could see San’s face now, and saw the way he smiled, brightly, before stepping to one side. 

In the corner of his room, a very much alive looking Byeol was gnawing on an entire raw steak. Wooyoung blinked at her. 

“Shit.” He said, again. 

Byeol tore at the steak with strength that was definitely beyond a small housecat, Wooyoung was surprised it didn’t start bleeding all over the floor, the way she was tearing at it like it was an animal she’d just killed. San was watching her as indulgently as if she was just playing with a toy. 

“Isn’t just she the prettiest cat?” 

“Um,” Wooyoung said. 

He looked at San looking at Byeol violently ripping apart a piece of meat with unabashed adoration and thought vaguely, for the third time,  _ shit.  _ Because yeah, he was actually kind of in love with a demon. 

“Do you wanna get breakfast?” San said, looking up from where he was now scratching behind Byeol’s ears. 

Wooyoung started at him for a moment, then fell backwards onto the bed again, all the energy he’d previously retained gone again. “Fuck yeah.”

  
  


They’d slept through the night until at least midday (well, Wooyoung had anyway) but despite this, it was oddly quiet outside. 

“Everyone must be in class,” San said, voicing his thoughts. He was holding Byeol in his arms as they walked, he had barely let her go since Wooyoung had been awake. 

“Yeah…” Wooyoung looked around. “It’s weird, feels like there’s no one else here.”

The nearest cafe was just as weirdly empty as everywhere else seemed to be. It still seemed to be open, even though there was no one behind the counter or serving anyone, let alone any customers to be served. San and Wooyoung looked at each other. 

“Let’s just sit down?” San suggested, sliding into the booth by the door, putting his cat down beside him. Wooyoung shrugged and followed him, not wanting to stay standing up any longer. He was in the middle of debating if it would’ve been better to just make himself coffee at home when San spoke again, cutting into his hazy, caffeine deprived thoughts.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday,” 

“What?” Wooyoung said blankly, “Oh, it’s fine.” He lifted up his bandaged wrist. “It doesn’t even hurt.” 

“I didn’t mean that.”

“You’re not sorry for this?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I am sorry for that, but I meant…” San sighed. “I was an asshole to you yesterday, and you were just trying to help.”

“Oh,” Wooyoung looked down at the table, feeling a little awkward. “That’s okay, I mean, I did lie to you-”

“Yeah, but I threatened you-” 

Before either of them could continue the back and forth, Byeol jumped up onto the table and headbutted Wooyoung’s hand, purring.

“She really likes you,” San said, and Wooyoung looked up to see him regarding them with an almost wistful expression. He swallowed, and then words tore out of him without his permission. “I really-” He cut himself off, like he didn’t know what to say. “Thank you. Really, I’m so happy.” He paused again. “And I am really sorry you had to see all of that.” 

Wooyoung shook his head, stumbling over his words in his urgency to try and reassure him. “It’s really okay, all the demon things, I-” What he meant to say was that San hadn’t done anything to make him uncomfortable, he wasn’t freaked about by demon stuff, but what came out was- “I kinda like it.”

There was a pause.

San blinked at him. “What?”

Was it a blessing or a curse that just a split second after this, the window by the booth in front of them shattered with a sound like a brick had been thrown at it, making them both spring up from their seats so quickly that they both almost lost their balance. 

“What the fuck?” Wooyoung half yelled, while a voice in the back of his head said: ‘ _ saved by the bell.’  _ San didn’t even have a chance to reply, because both of their attention was drawn by a sound coming from the broken window. A low, guttural moan, not quite human, but not like any animal either. 

San exhaled shakily, grabbed Byeol (whose whole body seemed fluffed up in fear), and backed slowly out of the booth. 

“San,” Wooyoung had a really bad feeling about this. He quickly rushed to join him, and-

“ _ Shit! _ ” 

There was something crawling through the window. Or, someone? It was shaped like a person, but that was where the similarities ended. Its skin looked like it was rotting, it looked like it had been rotting for a long time, to the point where the skin stretched over its face had no recognisable features left on it. 

It was as if a corpse was climbing through the window. The shards of broken glass tore at its sides, disintegrating flesh easily, but this didn’t stop it. It kept going, and going, ripping its own sides apart, almost  _ slithering  _ until it collapsed onto the ground under the table with a loud thud. 

San started and grabbed hold of Wooyoung’s hand, almost like it was a reflex. The thing didn’t move for a second. Neither of them moved either, frozen on the spot. The stillness only lasted for a moment. The corpse lying in front of them dragged itself up abruptly so it was standing upright, fixed its deadened eye sockets on them briefly before starting to advance on them with far more speed than Wooyoung anticipated. 

“Oh,  _ fuck _ ,” San pulled at Wooyoung’s hand, but he didn’t move. “Wooyoung!” 

Everything he’d actually listened to the elders try to teach him came flooding back, he lifted his arm and smashed it into the creature’s skull with practiced precision. It collapsed onto the ground like a ragdoll.

“W-Wooyoung!” San yelled at him again, and this time he let himself be pulled away, still in a slight daze. 

San dragged him into the kitchen, slamming the door and setting about barricading it with a cabinet. “Shit,” He muttered, breathlessly. “What are you-” He spun around to face him. “Why did you do that?!”

Wooyoung shrugged, still dazed. “It worked.”

“Why did you punch it with your messed up arm?!”

“I did?” He looked down, “Uh, it’s my dominant arm.” 

San was looking at him as if he didn’t know whether to yell at him or laugh. “You- why’d you let me bite you on your dominant arm?”

“Uh, well, that’s hardly the problem right now!” He finally managed to regain some of his senses and was back to feeling  _ what the fuck _ about all of this again. “Was that- is that a fucking zombie? Am I going insane?” 

“I didn’t know zombies were real…” San leaned back into the wall, looking shell shocked. 

“They’re not real!” 

“Then what the hell was that?!”

“I don’t know!” Wooyoung through his hands up. “Looks like someone, like, reanimated a dead person, or something!”

San looked at him. “Reanimated… a dead person,” 

“Yeah,” Wooyoung exhaled heavily. “It’s like, black magic. It’s not even supposed to happen.” 

“So, say if you fucked up on a spell…” San continued, slowly, “Like, a necromancy spell.” 

They looked at each other.

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” 

Byeol wound around both of their legs obliviously, meowing and purring and asking for attention. 

“Where is everyone?” San said, hesitantly.

They both glanced towards the windows. There were definitely some people outside. Only-

“Oh no.”

  
  
  


If Wooyoung were ever to write a self help book, it would be titled: _ ‘So you’ve just caused the zombie apocalypse. Now what?’  _ in which he would detail all the things you should not do, like, ever, as a rule. Including, but not limited to: a) getting a crush on a demon, b) discovering through this that you might actually be into evil beings that could definitely kill you (and it’s not just a joke that your friends throw around anymore), c) resurrect said demon crush’s dead cat, thereby inadvertently causing the zombie apocalypse. 

On second thought, maybe he should title it _ ‘How to get disowned by your respectable demon slaying family in two days’ _ . 

In their time spent barricaded in the kitchen, Wooyoung and San managed to get the general gist of what was going on. Neither of them had thought to check their phones until that moment, at which point they discovered their friends had been sending them frantic texts and voicemails since the morning, and everyone on campus was on lockdown in the library while they tried to figure out what to do.

Their campus was completely overrun by the undead.

“Should we just… stay here?” San said, feeding Byeol some (raw) meat they’d found. “Until…” He trailed off. Wooyoung shook his head, staring at the door.

“We should do something, we need to try and fix this.” 

San leaned his head back against the wall. “How are we supposed to fix this?” Wooyoung said nothing in response, it seemed like San already knew he didn’t have an answer. He saw San’s shoulders begin to shake in his peripheral vision and glanced back at him, concerned, only to see that he was laughing. 

“What?”

“We-” He had to pause to stifle his laughter. “We caused the zombie apocalypse,” 

Wooyoung stared at him in confusion. “How is that funny?” 

San shook his head, still laughing. “It’s not,” He leaned forward to drop his head onto Wooyoung’s shoulder. “It’s really not.” 

It wasn’t funny, not even slightly, but for some reason both of them were in stitches, falling on the probably unhygienic kitchen floor of a zombie-infested cafe. Which was probably why they didn’t notice the door bursting open until it was too late. 

The zombie stumbled only for a second before lunging towards Wooyoung, more specifically, his arm. He didn’t have time to even attempt to move out of the way, just watched as the creature reached for him. 

Just as he was expecting the pain in his arm to amplify, bracing himself, the zombie suddenly let out a huge roar- and its body was torn apart in midair, bit by bit. 

Wooyoung made some kind of sound in the back of his throat, somewhere between a choke and a gasp. San.

“Shit. Shit. Did you-”

“You’re bleeding,” San was next to him, taking hold of his arm. The blood was soaking through the bandages, dripping onto his shirt. He hadn’t even noticed.

“That’s why it was after me,” He managed to say. “It must be. Hey-” He glanced around at the mess that used to be the zombie, and something occurred to him. “Hey, can’t you just do that to all of them? It seems… pretty effective.”

San shook his head, “I don’t know, I think there’s too many of them.”

“What if they’re all in one place?” San was still busy trying to fix up his bandages, to not much avail. 

“How are we supposed to get them all in one place?” He said, skeptically.

Wooyoung lifted his arm out of San’s grip. It took him a moment to get it.

“No. No way.”

“That’s too bad, I already decided,” 

“Hey,  _ Wooyoung _ ,” 

San tried and failed to stop him as he sprang up without and made for the door as quickly as possible. “Come protect me!” He yelled over his shoulder, stumbling out into the open. There was a brief pause as every creature in the vicinity just stopped, zeroing in on him. He was basically completely surrounded.

_ Oh. _

Then his wrist was seized by someone who was very much not a zombie, and who muttered into his ear: “You’re insane,” 

Despite the near death situation (again), Wooyoung cracked a smile. “Um. Run?”

“No shit.”

Zombies are supposed to be slow, according to movies, but unfortunately these things were nothing like movie zombies, and were very capable of running after them. Wooyoung kind of wished they’d fucked up the spell so as to make less competent zombies, but part of him was also kind of impressed by these things they’d managed to create. San dragged him behind a building so they could catch their breath.

“Hey, where’s the cat?” Wooyoung said. San gave him a look as if to say  _ ‘is that really what you’re thinking of right now?’ _ which didn’t seem fair, given this all happened to bring the damn cat back to life. 

“Here,” He turned to show him Byeol clutched under his arm, looking remarkably unconcerned by the whole situation. Wooyoung squinted at her.

“Isn’t she technically a zombie now?”

“She is not a zombie!” San protested.

“She was eating raw meat earlier,”

“She’s a carnivore, what do you expect her to eat?” 

Wooyoung shrugged. “Zombie cat~” 

San wrapped both his arms around Byeol, petting her as if in comfort. “Do you wanna die?” He said, sweetly. “You know I could kill you, right?”

Wooyoung just smirked at him. “Yeah,” 

A groan behind them startled them both back to attention. 

“Damn, okay, they’re here, let’s go!” Wooyoung hissed, pushing himself away from the wall and turning to grab San. But he’d remained motionless, staring at where the sounds were coming from. “San?” 

“I think I should do it now.”

“Now?” 

He nodded, eyes still fixed in place.

“Um, okay, what do you want me to do?”

San glanced at him, biting his lip. “Um, if you just,” He gestured, “Stand there. Then they’ll come.”

Wooyoung swallowed, trying to seem calm. “Okay.” 

“I won’t let them hurt you.” San told him quietly. 

Wooyoung turned away from him quickly to face the nearing crowd, unravelling the bandage from his arm. “Yah, just go do your demon stuff.” He said, pretending everything about this was normal.

No reply.

He didn’t want to look around and see he was alone. 

The creatures were getting closer, the first ones starting to swarm around the corner. Wooyoung steeled himself and tossed the blood soaked bandage down, as if throwing down a gauntlet. The swarm sped up, so many of them surging towards him that they were getting stuck in the small space between the two buildings. 

“Come on!” He yelled out, for no particular reason. “Come and get it!” 

One broke free from the crowd and careened towards him, bloodshot eyes wide. It took a lot of self control to not turn and run for his life, but he grit his teeth and stood his ground.  _ Come on, San!  _

He wasn’t coming. This thing was going to kill him if he did nothing. 

Wooyoung used all of his strength to swing his uninjured arm wildly into the creature’s side. It seemed momentarily thrown off by this, swaying on the spot, but quickly continued to advance. More were breaking free to join it, faster and faster. He couldn’t possibly get away. 

“ _ SAN! _ ” Wooyoung gave up fighting and just yelled out with as much volume as he could muster. Panic was starting to flare in his chest, genuine panic. He could die here.

As the mob moved closer and closer, he was just about ready to lose hope, the one ahead was barely a foot away, reaching for him. And then, it was just taken down. By… something? It struck its head with such high speed that Wooyoung couldn’t see what it was. He didn’t get a chance to look either, because a sound rang out into the space between the two buildings. It was completely indescribable. A deep, inhuman sound that seemed to just keep echoing.

And just like that, every creature burst into flames. 

Not only that, but no sooner had they flared up, they disintegrated. Actually disintegrated, turned into tiny fragments that make it look like they’d just dissolved. Fading away into the air, leaving absolutely no trace. 

This was when Wooyoung looked down, at the one remaining corpse, to see the thing on top of it was-

“Good kitty,” He heard San say behind him, as Byeol ripped the zombie’s throat out. This was all of the warning he got before San fell forwards on top of him, taking them both down.

They might’ve both passed out at some point while laying there, it was hard to tell, but at one point, delirious with blood loss, Wooyoung looked up at the sky and said, “Is this a bad time to tell you that I’m totally in love with you?”

San lifted his head up to look at him, “Mm?” 

“Cause,” Wooyoung continued, “Think I might be about to bleed to death, so I should probably tell you before that happens.” 

San put his hand over the wound, and something seemed to seep into it, as if he was putting an invisible bandage on. “You’re not gonna die,” He said, then inexplicably started to giggle, burying his face in the crook of Wooyoung’s neck.

“What?” Wooyoung complained. “Did you not hear what I said?”

San lifted his head up again. “You’re a dumbass.” He said, still laughing. “I’ve liked you ever since we met,” He sighed, “Thought you were never gonna notice.”

Wooyoung blinked up at him. “Huh?” 

“Stop talking now,” San cupped his face in his hand and leaned down to bring their lips together. And yeah, the kiss was definitely worth fighting a horde of zombies for.

“Hell of a first date, huh?” San said when they broke apart, trying unsuccessfully to push Byeol away as she started licking his face. Wooyoung snorted.

“Zombie cat.”

San rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, maybe.” 

  
  


_ “And that’s how we got together.” _

_ “Bullshit.” Yunho sat back in his chair, shaking his head. “There is no way that happened.”  _

_ “Are you denying we stopped the zombie apocalypse?”  _

_ “And also started it.” San supplied helpfully, leaning into Wooyoung’s shoulder. _

_ “Why did you guys even go and stop it instead of running the fuck away like everyone else?” Seonghwa asked them, still looking unconvinced.  _

_ “We’re good people, hyung!” Wooyoung pressed a hand to his chest emphatically, which just made San start laughing.  _

_ Hongjoong shook his head at them both, “Okay, demon and demon-fucker,”  _

_ “Hey, I resent that- _

_ “Is your cat actually a zombie?” Mingi interjected, sounding genuinely fascinated.  _

_ “Well, she’s kind of a zombie,” San started diplomatically.  _

_ “She’s definitely a zombie,” Wooyoung cut in, “She could rip your throat out.” He made an illustrative gesture. _

_ “Well I could do that too, she could be a demon cat.” San said nonchalantly.  _

_ “Oh, I know you could.”  _

_ “Why did that sound like flirting?!” Jongho exclaimed in distress.  _

_ “Maybe it was,” Wooyoung shrugged, sending the entire table into chaos, yelling at them both. _

_ Yeosang made a pained sound from Wooyoung’s other side. “I absolutely hate that I know you.”  _

_ “I love you too~”  _

_ (Clearly Yeosang does not hate him, because mysteriously, his all-knowing family does not seem to have any idea about what happened.) _

Don’t try and date demons. Well, unless you can get away with it.

**Author's Note:**

> this is genuinely the wildest thing i've ever written so uhhhh i hope everyone enjoyed !! 
> 
> come talk to me about atz :)  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/yerimiesebot) // [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/kuttsukiboshi)


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